This invention relates to medical devices. In particular, this invention relates to medical devices that are used to dispense maintenance pharmaceutical drugs.
Many individuals suffer from chronic health problems, such as asthma, epilepsy, cancer, diabetes and allergies, the treatment of which typically requires the regular delivery of precise amounts of medication for the patient""s survival. Optimum treatment of such chronic illnesses frequently requires that therapeutic drug dosing to a patient change in response to certain patient conditions. Unlike the human body""s ability to regulate itself, most medical treatments are administered somewhat xe2x80x9copen-loop.xe2x80x9d In other words, there is no continuous and immediate sensing of the effect of a dosage by which subsequent dosages are changed.
Many present-day chronic illness treatment regimens can be modeled as open loop systems, i.e., there is no automatic modification or adjustment of a treatment regimen in response to changing patient conditions. Individuals with chronic and expensive-to-treat illnesses might live better and filler lives if other drug delivery regimens were available.